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Monday, 19 August 2013

The Talented Mr Ripley

He is the mysterious, lonely,
troubled, confused, gifted, tender, sensitive, haunted, yearning, intellectual,
passionate and talented Mr Ripley. Set in the late 50’s the young blond
underachiever Tom Ripley (Matt Damon) is sent to Italy to retrieve a spoiled
millionaire playboy named Dickie Greenleaf (Jude Law). However, captivated by
the charm of Dickie and the lush lifestyle that he shares with his beautiful
girlfriend, Ripley embraces the posh existence. However all good things comes
to an end but Tom will stop at nothing to hold onto the new found life.

Watching the bright and charming
psychopath manoeuvre his way from a life of poverty to a grand life of jazz,
fine food and wine is a perfect ingredient to the psychological thriller genre.
The captivating and unsettling performance of Matt Damon shows us the dark
twisted Tom Ripley lust for a better life. The constant lies of his life give
us little knowledge of who Tom really is and where he actually comes from. All
that is known is he is an excellent pianist, has an eye for fame and has the
talent of becoming someone else. Impersonating other people and forging their
handwriting. Tom can even talk like the person he wants to be. His soul purpose
in life is to become a somebody rather than remain a nobody. He lives by a code
of “It's better to be a fake somebody than a real nobody”. The most troubling
feature that we witness Tom constantly do is his disturbing gaze at Dickie.
Maybe its admiration or maybe it is love? But as the film slowly creeps away
from the glossy beaches of the Italian coast and its luxurious lifestyles, the
gazes become more and more murderous.

Anthony Minghella vision embraced
the existence of a millionaire’s spoiled heir. When Tom and Dickie meet the
plot seems to become a narrative about Tom falling in love with Dickie. But we
are than taken to a journey of envy and obsession. Minghella drives the plot
from a thriller to a phycological thriller when Tom decides he would rather be
Dickie Greenleaf. Rather than go back to the damp basement apartment in New
York to a life of poverty, Ripley precipitately kills Dickie and takes his
identity. A game of cat and mouse presents itself when Tom has to constantly
change his identity to keep the illusion that Dickie is still alive.

How far could someone go to
become somebody else is the question that lingers around The Talented Mr
Ripley. Tom Ripley is a sympathetic psychopath that we can’t help but gravitate
towards and subconsciously want him to get gateway. The Talented Mr Ripley is a
dominant thriller that seamlessly grows into eerie suspense.